Born in Odessa, USSR, and emigrated to the United States in 1989, Alexander received his BFA degree from The Cooper Union in May 2000. His main areas of concentration were graphic design and photography. Alexander worked as a designer in the Cooper Union Center for Design and Typography before pursuing a graduate degree. He attended the Cranbrook Academy of Art’s 2D Design department and graduated with an MFA in May 2007. Returning to New York that year he began teaching at The Cooper Union School of Art. In the fall of 2009 he co-curated an exhibition Lubalin Now with Mike Essl, and was named Curator of the Herb Lubalin Study Center of Design and Typography in 2010.

Since 2010 he has curated several exhibitions including: Appetite (2010), Pharma (2011),Type@Cooper (2012), Image of the Studio (2013), Thirty (2015), Swiss Style Now (2016), and We Dissent (2018). Since 2007, Alexander has taught typography and graphic design at the Cooper Union, Fordham University, City College and SUNY Purchase. He also teaches the history of typeface design at Type@Cooper, the post-graduate certificate program he co-founded in 2010. He is co-director of the annual Typographics conference and created the Lubalin100.com, and Flat File digital projects for the Lubalin Center.